


Deviation #4

by JayBarou



Series: Things that could have been Different in Endgame [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 04:20:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18613015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: The one where Brunnhilde refuses Thor's offer





	Deviation #4

**Author's Note:**

> Making summaries without spoilers is hard.   
> The one where Valkyrie refuses to be Queen

“You are not joking. Oh, Norns, you are not joking, you want to make me queen.”

“I can’t think of any other Asgardian worthy of the title.”

She could feel the colour draining from her face. Some humans said you could see your whole life before your eyes when you were about to die. At that moment she could see her whole life ahead of her, and she didn’t like it. Being queen was fine when you were the queen of a golden kingdom full of soldiers, and so powerful that politics were reduced to the simplest of negotiations. Being the queen of a handful of lost souls who had to beg humans for land and depend on their charity for most things... Not fun.

And the oaf was smiling at her.

“Maybe you don’t know anyone else worthy of the title,” she started politely. “because you have been holed up in your basement instead of talking to your people.”

Thor’s smile slipped slightly as if he still had hoped she was joking.

“People whisper, you know, Thor? And they started to say long ago that Loki was a better king than you. There is a shrine in the mountains where they leave coins and trinkets and wish for him to have faked his death again.”

“I didn’t know... Do they really think that?”

“Walk with me there and I’ll show you, ok?” She also wished Loki was alive. Or Frigga, or Odin, maybe even Hela? No, not her, but this conversation was definitely a family member’s burden, not hers.

“Look, Thor, I have been putting patches when you were gone, waiting until you were back, we all have been doing what we could, but enough is enough, Thor, you have to carry your weight too.”

“I can’t,” he said with a cheer that could be either delusional or hysterical, but Brunnhilde couldn’t see it as being sincere. “I was never meant to be a king. I handed it over before. Remember?”

“Yes, to your brother, twice if what I hear is right. And then you took the mantle anyway.”

“Loki was by my side then.”

“But he is gone now!”

“I was the king of a ship for, what, hours? And Thanos happened. What kind of king lets that happen?”

Brunnhilde considered her chances of being beheaded and still, she spoke.

“King Thor, apparently. The one who, instead of helping his people in their time of need, went looking for revenge and left us to fend for ourselves.”

Thor stopped on his tracks and looked at her very shocked and only slightly annoyed.

“Like a child,” she added for emphasis. “Or a grieving idiot like me.” The noose was around her neck anyway. “But definitely not like a king.”

They walked in silence then. The Asgardians looked at them while they passed through the streets. Brunnhilde had been alive for long enough to know they were thinking she should marry him and be his Frigga and support him, but fuck being queen, she was a Valkyrie and she had worked hard to be one.

“So you think I should grow up and be king?” Thor finally said.

“Norns help us, no. Not the way you are now. But people will forever look up to you, and I think you should do something about  _ that, _ ” she kicked a pebble and it hit an empty trashcan, making a loud gong, and making them flinch.

“ _ Something.  _ That is vague.”

“Yes, well, maybe Loki would have better and more weird ideas, but I don’t. Because I was never a leader. I was not the leader of the Valkyries. Thor, I had my own ship in that dumpster-fire that was Sakar, and if you think a little you’ll know why. Wait, I’ll tell you: I don’t like working in groups.”

Thor frowned at her and she was reminded of a puppy. A battered puppy abandoned and taken too soon from his mother’s teat. Probably soaking wet in the rain too. Norns, he was so lost once revenge burned him out...

“I don’t mind helping out, but I don’t like it. And don’t dare to drop your burden on me and expect me to be glad or thankful for it. You’d make me miserable. Maybe... Maybe we could create the Thing again. When I was a little girl we learnt about the Thing at school. It was in the times of Bor, he dissolved it, but it was something like the King’s council.”

“Maybe, but  _ I _ must go. If anything, what you are telling me only confirms that I can’t stay. I’m hurting people by staying here.”

“Look, if you don’t stay for your people, do it for yourself. You are something like... almost a friend to me. I mean, not a friend, but something like that, and I know one thing:”

She stopped. They were at the edge of the village. From that point on the road turned into a muddy way with two wheel-tracks with brown pools and lush grass between them. She stopped Thor too.

“You need help, go and get help and then come back, but don’t shrug this off, and don’t think I don’t see what this is; this is just a way to escape. Now you need to hold on to your people more than ever. What will happen when grief strikes you and you are alone with your barrels of ale? I can tell you what will happen. I have experience.” She started to walk the muddy way. “It is not nice. The world of the sobers is more painful, sharper, but it is better, Thor. These last few years have proven it for me.”

A long silence strangled the conversation. She could think of a thousand other things that she would like to say, but she felt like from that point on she would be repeating herself. Thor seemed to be walking alone, he didn’t look at her, he didn’t look where he was going and nearly stepped into a pool several times.

Brunnhilde got easily bored with introspective silence.

“Look. It’s not my place to tell you if you should stay or go. But if you leave us, at least don’t go alone.”

“And who do I have left?” Thor stared forward mournfully.

“I don’t know! I’m not your sage or your therapist or your sister! You have to figure out for yourself some of your shit.”

Brunnhilde was annoyed, alright. She was nobody’s caretaker, but the role seemed to be thrust upon her. She had had to take care of many Asgardians since they reached Earth, but she drew the line at being someone’s personal guru. She had started this conversation to get Thor back, to make him help a little because it was too much for her. Not the working itself, she could haul fish boxes day and night, but talking to everybody, listening to their problems, their complaints, seeing their problems stay and their unrest grow because they were waiting to consult Thor specifically, the growing multitudes of “aliens go home” at the doors of their village every Thursday... 

That was too much for her, and there were too many people who had grown complacent, so used to just obeying Odin, or whoever was on the throne, and now the throne was empty, or worse than empty, and when they turned their eyes up, Asgardians didn’t find their answers, or their orders anymore. In her opinion, everyone had to grow up a little. If it was up to her, she’d send all of them to Sakar for a couple of years to fend for themselves, and that would surely wake them up. Because with the way they were? None of them were even remotely useful to her. Least of all Thor.

But the conversation was going the opposite way. Instead of pulling his weight, Thor was going to leave them and go on some spiritual voyage, as usual, if the things the villagers said were true. They said he had been a traveling prince too. They said that Thor went to Jotunheim during his first coronation, that he went to Midgard multiple times, that he went to the colonies during times of political unrest, that he went back to Midgard refusing the throne again, and that he was expelled from the realm when his sister appeared. By his own will or by other’s, Thor had never been able to stay with his ass (or his attention) glued to the throne. 

Maybe she was the one making a mistake by trying to keep him in Asgard, maybe she should learn from Thor’s past actions and see that he wouldn’t stay. She really wanted to shout, because politics had never been her thing. She wanted to scream, shout and hit Thor until he decided to be the king everyone expected him to be. She was proud, she was controlling herself a lot, she would only start to scream in 5 minutes or so. 

She was so annoyed that she didn’t notice how Thor stayed behind when they reached the shrine. When she looked up to the small stone, she saw again where messages had been left, written in sharpie in runes, and the euros and krones that piled on it. It was something small and private. Loki would have hated it, he would have wanted a huge statue, but it was not a shrine to Loki, not really, it was more… a shrine to the hopes of the Asgardian. A secret hope for a better future. 

Brunnhilde frowned. She was not introspective by nature, but all this silence was affecting her. She noticed she was alone and turned. Thor was looking at the ground as if he couldn’t bear to look up. Norns, it was just a few coins, a few graffiti and a block of rock. And heaps and heaps of silence. She would go mad if he didn’t say something. 

“You are right,” he finally said. “I won’t be alone. I’m sure Bruce won’t mind having me around for some time.”

Thor walked away, still deep in thought. 

She put her hands in her pockets, a few coins tingling far more cheerfully than her own mood. She huffed and decided to follow him and shout during all their way back, but her eyes were drawn back to the shrine. She had a few krones in her pocket. 20 were too many for that bastard, but one of the little silver ones with the hole in the middle... Well, she couldn’t even buy bubblegum with such a worthless thing, so she threw the coin with the others.

She was already taking the first step to trot her way back to Thor when the voice reached her. 

“I hear you are looking for a true king, but I reckon that idea of the Thing has some merit.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I accept suggestions for more Alternate Endgame ficlets.


End file.
